WASHINGTON (AFP) – Lacking enough of the anesthetic essential to the cocktail of lethal drugs administered during executions, several US states are being forced to postpone the procedure until early next year.

At the heart of the drug supply problem is Hospira, the only pharmaceutical company that produces the anesthetic sodium thiopental.

"We are working to get it back on the market and we anticipate we will by 2011," Hospira spokesman told AFP.

The US Food and Drug Administration does not approve the drug's use in lethal injections and Hospira does not sell it for that purpose, though prison officials make significant use of sodium thiopental in executions.

"This is an anesthetic agent that is used by hospital and it is not indicated for capital punishment," Rosenberg added. "We do not make it for that, we don't support its use in that procedure."

He noted that Hospira does not disclose sales of the drug because it is not a big seller for the company.

Death row inmates are injected intravenously with three drugs once strapped in the death chamber: first they are put to sleep with sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide then paralyzes their muscles and stops their breathing, and finally, potassium chloride stops their heart.

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Just need to "Think Outside The Box". Ya don't need no sodium-whatever.